Reading which is among basic linguistic skills has a significant position in individuals' intellectual life. This is due to the fact that perception, meaning construction, information retrieval and the reuse of the acquired information in communicative processes in written communication is heavily dependent upon reading activities. Though the question of whether physical components or cognitive processes are more effective in the reading process has been answered differently by various researchers, the consensus upon the nature of this activity is the fact that it is a rather complicated process. In order to explain this complicated process as much as possible, the concept of critical reading has recently been put forward as a model in education. Critical reading can be regarded as an attempt of "re-reading" which requires handling many concepts affecting our life directly or indirectly with a wider perspective. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a science and technology lesson arranged within the context of critical reading on students' academic achievement, critical thinking and critical reading skills. The sample of the group of the study which was conducted in 2011-2012 academic year spring term in Zonguldak is composed of 8 th grade elementary school students. The study is quasi-experimental and has pre-test, post-test control group design. The quantitative data used to test the research hypotheses is collected by means of an academic achievement test, critical thinking scale and critical reading scale and the data was analysed applying independent and dependent sample t-tests via SPSS Statistical Analysis Software. As a result of the study, it was found out that the experimental group performed better than the control group in terms of academic achievement, critical thinking and critical reading skills and the difference in achievement was statistically significant.
This study aimed to investigate the effect of critical reading (CR) practices in science courses on academic achievement, science performance level, and problem-solving skills. The experimental method and factorial design were used. The study was conducted with 102 seventh-grade students from a public school in Turkey during the 2014–2015 academic year. Experimental and control groups were formed. CR practices were followed in the experimental group and teaching practices appropriate to the curriculum were used in the control group. Data were collected with the “Multiple-Choice Academic Achievement Test” to determine the students’ academic level in the “Human and Environment Unit: The Science Performance Level Test” to determine their science performance level and the “Logical Thinking Group Test” to determine the level of their problem-solving skills. The variables of academic achievement and science performance levels were labeled “Academic Performance.” Independent samples two-way ANOVA was applied to analyze the data using SPSS 18.0 software. The results revealed that the students in the experimental group, who were taught science using CR practices, were significantly more successful than the students in the control group, whose teaching was appropriate to the current curriculum in terms of academic achievement, science performance level, and problem-solving skills. It is of critical importance to use such innovative practices, which combine various disciplines, to allow students to excel at reading, which is a basic skill, at all educational levels in order to raise contemporary and social individuals.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the creative reversal act (CREACT) used in teaching ecosystems topics on the creativity levels of middle school students. Research Methods:The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental design, a quantitative research method, and a pretestposttest control group design. The sample of the study was comprised of 39 students in two groups. The quantitative data were analyzed using the dependent and independent samples t-tests in SPSS software. Findings: There was a significant difference between the experimental group, which underwent creative reversal act training, and the control group, which
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.